Wùměi-jiàlián de shāngpǐn hěn shòu xiāofèizhě huānyíng.
Goods that are high quality and cheap are very popular with consumers.
Tips
culture
廉 is one of the four social virtues in classical Chinese ethics: 礼义廉耻 (propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame). It remains central to Chinese political discourse on anti-corruption.
usage
廉 alone is literary and used in formal/written contexts. In everyday speech, 便宜 (piányí) is more common for 'cheap/inexpensive', while 廉洁 (liánjié) is standard for 'incorruptible'.
广 is the shelter/eave radical depicting an open-fronted building. In 廉 it originally referred to the corner edge of a hall, a place where moral uprightness was on display. From "sharp corner" came "incorruptible, upright," and later "low-priced."
兼 supplies the sound, drifting from jiān to lián (a j-/l- swap attested in old Chinese). 兼 pictures a hand holding two stalks of grain together. No semantic role in 廉; pure phonetic. Same series in 帘 lián, 镰 lián (sickle).
